


Chance Encounters

by mintycarrots



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Growing Up, Ice Skating, M/M, Oneshot, Pianist Akaashi Keiji, Rarepair, SakuAka, Violinist Sakusa Kiyoomi, Volleyball, just for fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28011051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintycarrots/pseuds/mintycarrots
Summary: This wasn't the first time Keiji met Sakusa Kiyoomi.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	Chance Encounters

Standing next to Bokuto, Keiji stared down their opponents on the other side of the net. The captain, and also the setter, Iizuna had a pleasant face, boyish features that were nice to look at, and short soft hair that was pushed to the side. Next to him stood their libero, Komori Motoya.

That wasn’t who was the most eye catching, for that was Sakusa Kiyoomi. 

“You see him, Akaashi? He’s top 3!” Bokuto hissed, tugging on Keiji’s sleeve and trying to discreetly point at the ace. “And he’s only a second year!” 

“Yes,” Keiji said. In his year, but taller, broader, stronger. #2 ace in the _nation._ Fukurodani didn’t have the chance to play against Itachiyama last year, but now was their chance to knock Itachiyama out of the bracket early. Assuming Nohebi would be enough to beat them later on. 

Chances were Fukurodani would be the one playing against Nohebi. Ubagawa was definitely going to Nationals this round.

Despite that, this wasn’t the first time they had met, and Sakusa knew it too as they took their places on court, if the small furrow of the eyebrows was any indication. No, definitely not the first. Those two moles would haunt anyone and anybody that caught even the slightest glance of them.

* * *

“Keiji,” his mother bent down to meet his eye-level, “Do you want to try pair skating?”

Like everything that was asked of Young Keiji, he agreed without asking. 

That evening, his mother sat with him at their computer and she pulled up videos of figure skaters, gliding across the ice, seemingly drawn together as they skated in sync. The guy lift up the girl, above his head, and held her there as her legs went up and they spun. 

“If you continue long enough, you could do that,” his mother smiled. Keiji looked back towards the screen. It looks terrifying. What happens if the boy isn’t strong enough? Then both of them would get hurt.

He didn’t voice any of his concerns.

When the new term started, Keiji sat down as his mother chatted with the instructor and pulled thin knee pads over his legs (he bruised easily, not a good look on his skin) and straightened, shaking his pant leg down. 

“That’s wonderful! A few other girls have also signed up for young pairs this year,” the instructor was saying. 

“I’m a bit worried about the lifts aspect of pairs, though. Keiji has the height, but…”

“Oh, don’t worry. Those won’t come until much later. And there’s always the choice of switching to ice dancing.”

He tugged on his skates and laced them up, pulling tightly. Keiji waddled toward the rink, sliding forward on the ice. Since he agreed to switch it up, they were there on Sunday evening, instead of the morning. Which meant a lot of strangers.

In short: all of his progress on making a friend has been terminated. Well, not quite.

There was one other boy, taller than he was, with curly black hair and an unpleasant scowl. Keiji had avoided him before, because not only did the boy dislike being around others, but he looked like the type to pick on Keiji if given the chance.

Odd, to dislike people, and the solution was to skate _with_ other people. Wasn’t there a term for that? Exposure something?

He tucked his hands into his pockets and skated over where the other was making laps around the rink.

“What?” His name… Sakusa? Sakusa K. 

Keiji shrugged and looked down. The boy began to ignore him and sped up, Keiji matched his pace. A habit of his was always to line up his steps with whoever was next to him. 

“Stop it!” he snapped, screeching to a halt. Keiji spun around and slowed, did he do something wrong? “Stop following me!” 

Oh. He could’ve just said. The boy sped away and Keiji was left behind, as always.

The instructor finally stepped on ice and called all the children over. “Does anyone know what pairs in figure skating is?” 

Skating but with two people. It wasn’t that hard to understand. Keiji picked at the ice while she went on to explain what they would be working on in the next couple of months. She clapped and his head snapped up. 

“Alright, I’m going to separate you all into pairs and we’re going to skate around the rink, all right? Try and match your steps with your partners.” 

There were 3 boys and 5 girls in the group, and pairs skating required girl-boy pairings. There were two girls that were put together- were they twins?- and Keiji was paired with a girl that barely reached his shoulder, the ideal height difference, the instructor said, with long black hair that was braided away from her face and big brown eyes. 

Keiji reached out and grabbed her hand, which illicited a squeak from her, and pushed off. He tried to match her steps but they were irregular, and more often that not Keiji was tugging her along impatiently when _she_ couldn’t match _him_. 

It was going just as well as he expected it to. Why was she so much shorter than him? It was just an inconvenience, if anything. A tug on his hand had him slowly down. 

“K-Keiji-kun, stop,” she whispered.

“Why?” 

“Look,” she pointed at something in front of him and he glanced up, oh. Sakusa was making a fuss over something, the girl he was with looking close to tears, and the instructor was trying to calm her down and talk to Sakusa at the same time. 

His hand tightened at the glare the boy sent the pair when he noticed them. 

“Kiyoomi-kun, how about switching partners? How do you feel about Niko-chan? Could you skate with her?” 

The scowl on the boy’s face twisted even further if it was possible. Niko stepped closer to Keiji’s side and half hid behind him, still clutching his hand tightly. 

“Then- then- Keiji-kun! Do you mind if Kiyoomi-kun skated with you?” 

He shrugged. It didn’t really matter, he was just here to skate. 

Sakusa finally spoke up, “He’s weird.” 

That sounded offensive. Keiji took offense to that. However, the instructor’s face lit up, “So it’s fine? Niko-chan, can you skate with Himari-chan instead of Keiji-kun? Great, that’s settled!” 

Keiji pushed Niko off gently, reaching out to Sakusa’s hand, who just coolly slid back. Alright then. With the crisis now solved, Keiji looked down again. Despite his… prickly personality, his steps were even, much easier to match when he was stepping along to the beat of the music that was playing softly over the speakers. 

Sakusa ignored Keiji, staring straight ahead, placing one step after another, almost robotically. 

By the end of the day, they had just done a few more exercises, watching you partner carefully, stepping in unison, etc. Sakusa and Keiji had tried a few spins unprompted because they were bored (their instructor was thrilled). 

At least he wasn’t ignoring Keiji anymore. 

The instructor bid them goodbye with a reminder that they would be meeting on Tuesday evenings as well. 

Keiji sat at the end of a bench and put the guards on his blades. He undid his laces slowly, looking around every so often for his mother. A bag thunked at his side and Keiji jumped. 

Sakusa sat down next to him and began working at his skates. That was new. 

A possible friend?

-

Not a friend! As it turns out!

A week later Sakusa dropped out, according to the instructor, and that left the class with 7 people. Which meant an odd number. Which _meant,_ Keiji was, once again, the odd man out. 

He sighed. Should've expected it sooner or later, really. 

Well, there wasn’t really any point to pair skating when you don’t have a partner, right? Keiji spent a month third-wheeling before figuring that out, and soon after he returned to individual skating, only to drop that after a few months. 

* * *

“Work on the next page of your piece, along with ‘Candle’s Light’ from your techniques book, and ‘Spinning Wheel’ from the performance book,” his teacher scribbled this all down on a piece of paper and tucked it into his folder next to his practice log. “Now, I wanted to talk to you about an upcoming performance.” 

Keiji furrowed his eyebrows, “The recital in Spring?” That wasn’t for a while, though, at least 5 months until then, and he had already started on the piece. 

“No, as you know, I also teach violin along with piano, yes? One of my students is participating in Tokyo’s winter junior high division violin competition, and he needs an accompanist. He's around your age, and you’re one of the best students I have.” 

Playing as an accompanist? On stage with a violinist?

Sensing his hesitation, Majima was quick to include, “You don’t need to feel pressured to join, but it would be good experience if you choose to pursue piano in the future. How about you talk to your mother about it and decide next week? The competition prelims are end of November, and I’d like to get you two practicing as soon as possible, if you’d like to join, that is.” 

Keiji nodded and gathered his folder and books, standing up from the stool. He slid on his shoes at the genkan, bowed and thanked his teacher, and left. 

Violin competition, huh? 

He climbed up the stairs to his apartment and fished a key out of his pocket, unlocking the door and stepping in. 

“Keiji? Is that you?” 

“Yes, okaa-san,” he called back, “I’m home from piano.” 

His mother appeared with a spoon in hand, Keiji opened his mouth for the sample. Spicy. “Too much salt.” 

“Thank you, dear. How did your lesson go?” 

“Majima-san wants me to play as an accompanist at the Tokyo violin competition at the end of the month.” 

His mother’s eyes widened in surprise and she smiled, “Really? That’s wonderful! You’re going to do it, right?”

Well. 

“Yes, I am. I just hope the violinist is agreeable.”

-

The violinist was not agreeable. Why? The violinist was Sakusa Kiyoomi, Keiji learned. They had arranged to meet at Majima’s apartment, it turned out that they had lessons right before and after each other so they just combined it for a 2 hour slot to use her piano and to play under her instruction. 

He clasped his hands behind his back and bowed his head slightly as Majima introduced the two and Sakusa narrowed his eyes at him. 

Keiji had arrived first, seeing as he lived two floors above, and Sakusa had arrived soon after, violin in hand, and was occupied taking off the mask on his face before glancing up and freezing at the sight of Keiji.

“What are _you_ doing here?” Sakusa hissed as soon as Majima disappeared into her kitchen for a moment. Keiji raised an eyebrow (his father taught him how and he never hesitated to use it whenever possible) and tilted his head to the side. 

“I’m your accompanist.” 

“I can just hire one just fine!” Sakusa glared. Keiji gave him a deadpan stare (thank you, otou-san).

“I can play piano just fine.” 

Majima shuffled back in and smiled, “Kiyoomi-kun, why don’t you unpack? Did you choose a piece for prelims yet?” 

“Wieniawski Concerto No. 2, First Movement,” his movements returned to near-robotical, seemingly keeping an eye on Keiji the entire time while rosining his bow. He adjusted his shoulder-rest and gestured for Keiji to take a seat. 

“Play an A,” he snapped. Keiji nodded and pressed on the key, and Sakusa began tuning. Majima rifled through her shelves for the accompaniment piece. 

“Majima-san, I brought the sheet music with me,” Sakusa said. He set down his instrument and pulled a folder out of the pocket of his case. Keiji flipped it open and scanned over the pages. D minor. 4/4 time. 

“Scales and arpeggios, eighth notes, two octaves. I’ll set the time, D minor,” Sakusa instructed. Keiji nodded and set his fingers over the keys. “1 2 3 4.” 

After warmups Sakusa began playing through his piece, Keiji ghosted over the keys as he followed along. 

By the time their two hours were up, Keiji had a grasp of the piece and Sakusa had still not stopped glaring at him.

“You have very nice vibrato,” Keiji murmured. An olive branch. The glare faltered for a moment and he tossed the stick over. Sakusa snatched it out of the air and stared at him.

“I have flexible wrists,” he muttered back.

Keiji spun around on the stool to face him and he packed up his violin. Sakusa hadn’t changed much in the last 2 years, though his hair was a bit longer and he was definitely taller. And of course, who could forget those two moles. Two dots on top of one another above his eyebrow, sitting on pristine, pale skin.

“I heard you joined volleyball.”

His eyebrows raised slightly in surprise and his eyes flicked towards Keiji for a moment before returning to wiping his violin. “Yes. My cousin got me into it. How did you know?” 

“I play for Mori,” he said. 

“I thought pianists were supposed to protect their hands.” 

His lips quirked up, “Majima-san fought hard against the decision.” 

“Indeed I did,” she nodded solemnly, “Keiji-kun, I’ll be seeing you on Friday, correct? Kiyoomi-kun, you on Saturday?” 

They both nodded and bowed, thanking her for the time, before stepping out and parting at the stairs.

-

Keiji stared at the paper with a quiet sense of accomplishment as he was elbowed out of the way. Sakusa was standing in the hall around the corner, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the ground. They were unintentionally matching, Keiji noted, if all black button up, blazer, and slacks counted as matching. 

The only indication of his nervousness was the bottom lip that was pulled into his mouth. 

“You passed,” he said. Sakusa looked up and nodded, a glint of satisfaction in his eyes, lip falling out of his mouth. “What’s the next piece?” 

“Saint-Saens is always safe. It’s won this competition for the past 3 years.” 

“Safe isn’t always fun.” 

“Neither is competition.”

They stared at each other until Keiji felt uncomfortable. He broke away and glanced down at his slacks. He hit a growth spurt recently, and they were a hair shy of revealing his ankles. 

“Kiyoomi!” a bright voice called out, and a boy with short brown hair and- _woah_ eyebrows. Thick eyebrows. “Great job! Akaashi-kun, right?” 

He looked up and tilted his head. It was the libero for Sakusa’s team. Komori something. Eyebrows. 

“The two of you were awesome! Hey- have I seen you before?” 

“I play for Mori.” 

“Oh, right! I think we played Mori last year, right Kiyoomi? I don’t think I saw you on court, though!” 

“Right. I was still on the bench at the time,” he responded. That game was an utter disaster, Okojo had ended up winning both sets, no less than a 5 point gap maintained the entire time. Of course, with Sakusa as an opponent, almost all of Keiji’s team was unable to even touch the nasty spin put on the ball.

After a few minutes of Keiji shifting from one foot to another while Komori chatted with Sakusa (seriously, who knew Sakusa Kiyoomi could actually talk to people?), Komori left to find his parents, who had also come to watch, and the hall fell silent again.

“I’ll play Saint-Saens next round and switch to Tchaik,” Sakusa said. 

Compromise. 

That was fine, he was working on the piece anyways, Keiji nodded and turned around. These slacks were too short for him. 

* * *

He made a fist, palm in, on his thigh. Konoha nodded and copied the signal.

Sakusa narrowed his eyes as he tried to read Keiji’s form, waiting for the toss before jumping to block. Keiji held eye contact the entire time, moving under the ball and giving nothing away until the ball was already gone. 

They had practiced this exact play thousands of times, and it was fairly standard. A 3 person synchronized attack, Bokuto left, Onaga center, Sarukui right. That left Konoha and Komi to follow up if it didn’t make it through. 

Sakusa’s eyebrow twitched and he leapt up to block Bokuto’s cross. Ace v Ace. 

Fukurodani took the first point of the match when the ball slammed down on the court. Keiji watched Sakusa out of the corner of his eye and crossed his pointer and middle finger on his thigh. Konoha nodded and did the same. Sakusa’s eyes watched the movement and he turned to say something to their libero, Komori. Eyebrows. 

They shifted around on the court, and now Keiji was directly opposite Sakusa. 

“Nice serve!” he called to Sarukui, who had just started using jump serves during games. He covered the back of his head just in case. 

Luckily, the ball clipped the net but fell over, saved by #2 middle blocker, who stuck his foot out. The receive was off, good. Keiji watched intently as Iizuna jumped, the ball touching his finger for a moment and-

“Bokuto-san, left!” Keiji called, and they jumped to form a two-man block, shutting down the cross. Komi was there to receive the straight and the ball went up, passing neatly to the same spot- two steps away from the line, right between the center and the right line. Reset. 

Now let’s do the same play again.

The ball went to Bokuto again and he did the same cross, teetering precariously but not touching the net. They got the point and Bokuto cheered. 

“Akaashi! Nice toss!” 

“Nice kill,” he nodded, making a hand signal behind his back on his thigh, crossing his thumb and pointer finger to form a heart (Bokuto insisted on it). Sakusa glanced at his hand and glared at him. Keiji allowed a slight smirk. 

Konoha repeated the signal and Sarukui prepared for another serve. Keiji lifted his hands to cradle the back of his head and the whistle blew- shortly followed by a ball barrelling into the net to his right. He flinched away and sighed. 

“Don’t mind!” he called back to Sarukui before rolling the ball over. They rotated over and now their setter was up to serve. 

As soon as the ball passed over his head Keiji spun around and watched Konoha bump it up cleanly. He glanced around quickly. Onaga took a few extra steps back before running up- an additional boost for a high jump. He began running up the same time Bokuto stepped forward. Their #2, #4, and Sakusa were up to block. Sakusa and #2 were still watching him, but #4 was already following Bokuto. 

Well, 2 blockers are better than 3. His body arched as he tossed towards Onaga. With his high jump, the ball clipped #2’s fingers. 

“One-touch!”

Komori bumped up the ball. Before Iizuna had a chance to step towards the ball Sakusa bypassed the setter entirely and spiked it straight down center. Keiji leapt forward and braced for impact. 

The ball stung his arms and flew out of control, fleeing off the court before anyone had a hope of recovering it.

Flexible wrists. Nasty spin. Two moles. Of course. 

“Don’t mind!” Konoha and Sarukui said. Keiji scowled. The only person who had a hope of receiving the stupid spike would probably be Komi, but with Sakusa’s level of control, the ace would and could avoid the libero as much as possible. 

Keiji stood back to Konoha and made a fist with the palm facing out for the next play. 

Iizuna’s serve, still. This time is strayed toward the right corner of the court, and Onaga dropped to a knee to receive it.

“Konoha-san!” he called the spiker up to bat. Konoha was met with #2 and #4, and he prepped himself for a jump. Keiji sent a high toss and #4 jumped. He smiled. Konoha then jumped. 

One blocker. Sakusa bent over #4’s body, hand outstretched in an attempt to touch the spike. One and a half blockers. Konoha tapped the ball lightly and it fell with a slight thud, centimeters away from Komori’s outstretched hand.

Time differential attack, picked up from Kuroo and Kozume. Keiji grinned high-fived Konoha, who was the only one that had properly synced up with Keiji to learn that move. Bokuto was often too impatient and forgot to wait, and Sarukui’s form just wasn’t convincing enough to sway the blockers. The feint was just something that Konoha added himself, and it worked in his favor. 

“Nice kill!”

“Nice toss!”

Keiji closed his eyes and exhaled, shuffling to the side. Onaga was up to serve now. He opened his eyes to see coal black.

A fire burned in Sakusa’s eyes as he glared at Keiji, who smirked, a challenge.

Curly hair, two moles, narrow eyes. Challenge accepted.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried writing semishira but I was stuck in akaashi mindset from Growth Mindset so now ahaha more rarepairs. Love akaashi probably going to write a konaaka fic. This has no purpose it's just for me. Plus SakuAka needs more content. Liked it? Hated it? Let me know, thanks :)
> 
> i need to do my math hw


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